China stimulus seen as opportunity for IC firmsNews & Analysis 8/31/2009 Post a commentMarket research firm Gartner advised semiconductor firms to step up efforts to work with Chinese manufacturers in order to cash in on a rise in that country's domestic demand being driven by a government subsidy program for home appliances.

Magma posts loss, amends tender offerNews & Analysis 8/31/2009 Post a commentMagma Design Automation posted a loss in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles of $4.3 million on revenue of $28.8 million for the first quarter of its fiscal 2010, the company reported last week.

European chip vendors research manufacturing advantageNews & Analysis 8/31/2009 Post a commentA group of European chip manufacturers and academic institutions have gathered in a research project aiming at improving the competitiveness of European chip industry. The 'IMPROVE' project focuses on specific aspects of chip semiconductor production: virtual metrology and predictive maintenance.

Newsbits: Broadband flood, iPhone in ChinaProduct News 8/28/2009 Post a commentTwo separate signs of growth in communications hit today as the U.S. government reported it received nearly 2,200 applications requesting nearly $28 billion in stimulus funding for proposed broadband projects and Apple struck a deal with China Unicom to sell the iPhone in China.

Gateways, Web shape next-gen home networksNews & Analysis 8/28/2009 Post a commentTomorrow's home networks will be shaped by a race to bring the Web to digital home products and the rising influence of service providers, according to a market watcher Parks Associates in an online talk.

IBM visualizes single molecule structureNews & Analysis 8/27/2009 Post a commentScientists at IBMs Zurich laboratory have succeeded to visualize the structure of an individual molecule using non-contact atomic force microscopy (AFM). The move is a further step to a still very distant future: Molecular electronics.

Group bids to spend $178M on smart gridsNews & Analysis 8/27/2009 1 commentA team of utilities, vendors and research groups has submitted a five-year, $178 million proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy to build a smart electric grid demonstration system in the Pacific Northwest region, one of more than 400 bids for economic stimulus grants the DoE has received, contending for as much as $3.9 billion in government funds aimed at accelerating work on smart grids.

Nvidia offers $5,000 in prizes to Cuda programmersNews & Analysis 8/27/2009 1 commentGraphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has said it plans to offer prizes totaling $5,000 to five programmers who use the Cuda parallel programming environment to solve the first of a series of challenges.

Ethernet no threat to FlexRay, NXP saysProduct News 8/27/2009 Post a commentRecent discussions to establish Ethernet in automotive applications are no threat to the position of FlexRay as the data transmission technology of choice for safety critical applications, believes NXP as one of the founding members of the FlexRay Consortium.